Developing non-core regions by establishing new universities

We explore the regional engagement of universities in non-core regions in a Global South context and uncover how new universities form and institutionalize regional ties. Through case studies of five new universities in India, we identify three routes–personal, organizational and brokered–through which new universities form regional ties, and four logics–incrementalism, social responsibility, legitimation and rationalization–through which these ties become embedded. We unpack and combine each of the routes and logics into a framework that explains how new ties are formed and developed between a new university and its surrounding non-core region.